The only way the Steam Deck succeeds while the Switch fails

I’ve been on a trip recently, which has me facing a question every time I’m away from my gaming PC for a few nights: How am I going to play the game? For almost five years now, my answer has been to pack my Nintendo Switch. This time, however, packing my Switch feels like a compromise I don’t want to make.

Like so many others, I’m eagerly waiting for Valve to come pre-order my Steam Deck. With the clock ticking in my head, I realized the Nintendo Switch’s big shortcoming: Cross-save support. In addition to the graphics, battery life, or even comically large size, the Steam Deck has succeeded in an area that the Nintendo Switch has never taken advantage of.

And I confidently say that even before my Steam Deck pre-order arrived.

Situation game

Alvaro Reyes’s photo on Unsplash

My Steam Deck hasn’t arrived yet, but I had a brief opportunity to process and review the system during my recent trip (thanks, Giovanni). I’ve also seen it perform in a series of tests, talked to various system owners, and did enough research for Google to automatically complete “Steam Deck” before I got it. his first few characters. I know how the system feels, works, and works, despite the fact that my system hasn’t appeared yet.

Hand-held gaming is rarely the preferred way to play.

However, all of that is not important. The most important thing about the Steam Deck is that I can take my progress with me. Handsets are and always will be the cornerstone of compromise, so while it’s nice to look at the benchmarks and talk about ergonomics, the fact remains that handheld gaming is rarely the way to go. are preferred. It’s a situation game where you’re willing to compromise just to keep playing.

With my Switch, I find myself running into the same problem over and over again. I’m ready for a ride, I browse the eShop for deals, and I pick up some lengthy RPGs to keep my attention. However, I never made much progress, because I knew full well that when I go back to PC I will just play on it.

There are issues with the Switch, but none of them bother me. The Joy-Con’s graphics, frame rates, controls – none of that matters as I’m willing to compromise for portability. The key is to start over, and that’s something the Steam Deck doesn’t make you do.

Cross saving failed

The Witcher 3 runs on the Nintendo Switch.

The Switch may have ended the Steam Deck before Valve made its first announcement. But Nintendo never took advantage of one of the best features the developers pushed for: Cross saving. There’s an extensive list of Nintendo Switch games that support cross-savers, and they’ve been the backbone of my experience with the handheld.

Outside of Switch exclusive games, I mostly play games that allow me to bring the process back to my PC: Hades, The Witcher 3, Divinity Original Sin 2, and even Civilization VI (have problems like that port). There is also a collection of rogues live service titles with cross-development on Switch, like Missile Federation and Fortnite.

It’s clear that Nintendo has never attempted to make cross saves.

Nintendo didn’t recognize the rising wave, and they didn’t put in place any systems to make cross-saving between PC and Switch easier. If I could move Dragon Quest XI or Ni No Kuni save as much as i can with Immortals Fenyx Rising, I probably won’t reserve the Steam Deck. Or, at least, I wouldn’t be so eager.

I don’t want to downplay the effort required to make the cross-savings features work, but it’s clear that Nintendo never made that effort. And the scheduled delivery is more important of all considering the landfill of ports and the sublease the Switch has become in its final years.

The Switch isn’t a failure by any metric, but Nintendo could have given the system more pins than it was at the time of release with broader support for cross-savers. The Steam Deck solves that problem for gamers like me who don’t mind impacting performance if it means picking up where you left off.